Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has publicly appealed for asylum in Australia, but home affairs minister Peter Dutton says she will not get special treatment.
Photograph: Twitter/AFP/Getty Images

Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has been found to be a refugee by the United Nations, and the Australian government will now consider her asylum request, according to the Department of Home Affairs.

“She is a young Saudi woman whose face has been plastered around the world,” Pearson said. “She’s more at risk than other refugees, not just from her family but threats she has faced online and from her own government.

“We all know what the Saudi government is capable of doing on foreign soil. I would hope that, once her claim has been assessed, the Australian government will act quickly to get her out of Thailand and to safety.”

The Australian government previously said it would carefully consider granting a visa to Qunun if she is found to be a refugee by the United Nations. Her friends said on Tuesday that Australia had cancelled the tourist visa she was travelling on.

The Australian Greens senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, has called on the government to show moral leadership and act quickly to offer Qunun sanctuary. “It is time to bring this courageous young woman to Australia to start her life as a free woman,” she said.